EN-473 Language and Society (Spring 2024)

Upon successful completion of this course, students will have knowledge about:

• the impact of social factors, including gender, regional and cultural background, social and professional status, and attitude on language choice and language style, as well as the identities that are associated with said factors.
• relevant theoretical concepts, research themes and issues pertaining to sociolinguistics, translation and cultural studies
• interdisciplinary perspectives on the study of the relationship between language, culture, and society.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• apply critical reasoning to issues through independent thought and informed judgement.
• collect, analyse and organise information and ideas, as well as to convey those ideas clearly and fluently in their assignments.
• analyse and discuss relevant and important ethical issues in relevant research.
• read and critically reflect on theoretical and journalistic texts, positioning these within an academic discourse.
• demonstrate an appropriate level of academic literacy for postgraduate study.

This course studies language in relation to society and the culture(s) of its speakers. The use of language in its social context is explored by focusing and reflecting critically on a range of core concepts, media and professional settings.

The course consists of three parts. Part 1 examines a range of core concepts. It combines local and global perspectives to explore (i) how language use differs on the basis of social variables (including, for example, social status, ethnicity, gender); and (ii) how such variation acts as a marker of social identity in cross-cultural exchanges, across a range of professional settings. Indicative topics that may be covered under Part 1 include, for example: Overview of SocialSemiotics; Language and Identity; Language and Culture.

Part 2 focuses on the representations of identities, and the linguistic traits they embody, on a range of media. It also explores the role that language plays in facilitating the social integration of sensory impaired individuals within communities. Indicative topics that may be covered under Part 2 include, for example: Language and Advertising; Language and Accessibility; Language in Mass Media; Language in Social Media.

Part 3 examines how language contributes to the formation of communities built around the negotiation of professional identities and reflects the relationships established within them through the deployment of entrenched textual conventions. Indicative topics that may be covered under Part 3 include, for example: Critical Discourse Analysis; Language and Politics; Institutional Discourses; Corporate Discourses; Language and the Law.

This course, which regards language as a window into the identity and culture of its speakers, mobilises a wide-ranging conceptual network and introduces theoretical insights drawn from linguistics, translation studies and cultural studies. The variety of assessment formats adopted in the course will contribute to the development of students’ academic literacy.